Media Advisory: Activist and scholar Angela Davis to present UB’s 43rd annual Martin Luther King Jr. Commemoration Feb. 27

BUFFALO, N.Y. – Legendary human rights activist and author Angela Davis will present the University at Buffalo’s 43rd Annual Martin Luther King Jr. Commemoration event at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 27, in Alumni Arena on the UB North Campus.

The program, part of the university’s Distinguished Speakers Series, is not her first visit to UB. The university was a destination in the 1960s and ’70s for powerful figures in the civil rights and political movements, such as Davis, Malcolm X and others, an era that is the subject of a new UB exhibit, “Revolution: Civil Rights at UB, 1960-75.”

Through her activism and scholarship over many decades, Davis has been deeply involved in movements for social justice around the world. Her work has emphasized the importance of building communities of struggle for economic, racial and gender justice.

Davis has lectured throughout the U.S. and abroad, and has taught at several universities and colleges. She currently is Distinguished Professor Emerita of History of Consciousness — an interdisciplinary PhD program — and of Feminist Studies at the University of California Santa Cruz. She has authored numerous books, among them “Are Prisons Obsolete?” and “Abolition Democracy,” and is a founding member of Critical Resistance, a national organization dedicated to the dismantling of the prison industrial complex.

The program is sponsored by UB’s Minority Faculty and Staff Association, and Davis has been designated as the Graduate Student Choice Speaker.

During the program, audio and/or video photography, as well as still photography, will be limited to the first five minutes of her lecture. Davis is expected to begin speaking at approximately 7:45 p.m.

Working media may reserve tickets for the program by contacting Christine Vidal in the UB Office of Communications at 716-645-4607, 716-697-2935 or vidal@buffalo.edu no later than noon on Wednesday, Feb. 27. Reserved tickets may be picked up at the will-call window in Alumni Arena prior to the program. Media may need to show press credentials in order to be admitted to the program.